Monday, December 10, 2012

As I wrote here, John Boehner's secret scorecard used for keeping track of how House Republicans vote so that leadership can mete out punishment is quite Obama-esque. In so doing, Boehner cedes quite a bit of high ground, as well as leverage. One of the conservative congressmen he booted from the Budget Committee - Rep. Justin Amash - is publicly speaking out about it.

Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash told Breitbart News that it’s “hypocritical” for House Speaker John Boehner to criticize President Barack Obama over his administration’s lack of transparency while keeping the secret list of criteria used in his conservative purge from the American people.

“It’s always hypocritical to criticize someone else for not being transparent and then hide your own information when it’s something that should be released to the public,” Amash said in a phone interview. “This certainly is something that should be released to the public. Republican leadership was elected to represent the Republican conference. Voters throughout the country elect these Republican members. We get to choose our leadership. And we have the right to know who our leadership is. What do they stand for?”

That's exactly right. In attacking his own Party's members this way, not only does Boehner engage in blatant hypocrisy - thereby losing leverage in the transparency debate - but he risks becoming more like Obama himself.

Again, it'd sure be nice to see Boehner fight Obama as hard as he goes after his own.